Varicose veins are characterized by an uneven expansion of the lumen of the leg veins, the appearance of nodes on them and an increase in their length. The disease develops gradually, characterized by a chronic course.
Women suffer from varicose veins three times more often than men. And among the representatives of the stronger sex, people who like sports with maximum load distribution on the legs are prone to this ailment: football, tennis, basketball.
Why varicose veins form
There are three types of veins in the tissues of the legs: superficial, deep, superficial and deep connecting veins. Each vein is a hollow tube through which blood flows from the tissues of the legs to the heart. There are no muscle cells in the vein walls, so the vein cannot contract to push blood upward. This task is performed by the skeletal muscles of the legs. And the valves are located inside the veins: they close their valves at the moment of contraction of the skeletal muscles, preventing the backflow of blood. Each muscle contraction "pushes" the blood higher.
When the valve flaps do not close hermetically, part of the blood flows back, stagnates in the vein, presses on its walls, gradually stretching them. The lumen of the vein expands, its wall is elongated. This is the beginning of varicose veins.
Triggers of the disease:
- Inheritance - with a congenital lack of collagen fibers, the venous wall is less elastic and prone to stretching.
- Stagnation of blood in the veins of the legs with overweight and obesity, wearing shoes with a heel of more than 3-4 centimeters, with a prolonged position in a place of people of certain professions: hairdressers and salesmen, cooks, teachers or with aprolonged sitting with employees.
- Changes in hormone levels: the increase in the progesterone content in the blood of a pregnant woman makes the walls soft and stretchable, so the risk of varicose veins during the gestation period increases significantly.
The first signs of varicose veins - how not to miss
The moment when varicose veins or reticular varicose veins appear on the skin of the legs is considered an alarm signal of incipient varicose veins. This is not a cosmetic defect, but the beginning of the disease!
Simultaneously or after a while, the second group of signs joins: a feeling of heaviness in the legs, which spreads in the legs after a long stay or sitting on a chair. When a person starts walking, the feeling of heaviness decreases: the skeletal muscles push stagnant blood higher and the stretching of the venous walls decreases.
Further development of the disease is manifested by edema in the legs - these are signs of socks, thickening of one leg relative to the other during visual examination.
Subsequently, pain in the calf muscles of the legs, rapid fatigue during walking, joins the dry skin of the legs and its pigmentation, protrusion of varicose veins and the formation of trophic ulcers.
When to see a vascular surgeon?
When the first varicose veins and asterisks appear, consult a specialist and, if necessary, perform an ultrasound examination of the veins of the lower limbs and perform varicose vein surgery. The earlier the diagnosis of varicose veins is made, the more likely it is to be stopped at an early stage.